In today’s day and age, we all love to interact with friends and family on social media. It’s the way we get to share the news, both good and bad, and keep up with the latest trends, cute kitten and puppy videos, and whatever else might be going viral that day! As fun and easy as it is, we all need to be extra vigilant about those who might want to do us harm by pretending to be someone they’re not and asking for money or for personal information that we should NEVER give out to strangers on the Internet.
Today’s blog is an important reminder to all of you loyal fans and blog readers to be on the lookout for PCH imitators who may be lurking out there! Here are a few tips to protect yourself from potential scams.
Prize Patrol Members Will NOT Send Friend Requests
This one seems to be a favorite with scammers. They’ll send you a friend request on Facebook pretending to be someone from the Prize Patrol, like Danielle Lam or Dave Sayer. Don’t be fooled! Prize Patrol members will NEVER send you friend requests!
These scammers can also make their Facebook pages look very authentic, and it can be very tricky to tell the difference. Never fall for it! If something tells you that it’s not right, because of poor spelling and grammar for instance, then trust your instincts! In fact, always make sure you’re on the real PCH Fan Page on Facebook. You’ll notice the blue check mark in the top left-hand corner letting you know it’s verified.
You NEVER Have To Pay To Claim A PCH Prize
If someone tells you that you’ve won a prize, but that in order to claim it you need to give them money for any reason – 🛑STOP🛑 – it’s a SCAM! Sad but true, there are unscrupulous individuals who impersonate the “real” PCH and contact fans and friends like you – often asking their victims to send some sort of payment or fee to claim a fake PCH “prize.” At Publishers Clearing House the winning is always 🌟free🌟!
If someone asks you to send money to get your prize – whether they ask for you to wire it, go to a Bitcoin machine, or buy a gift card – DON’T DO IT. PCH will never, ever ask you to pay a single cent to claim your prize.
Winners Are NOT Notified Through Facebook
We would never alert our winner in advance on social media like Facebook. That would ruin the surprise! PCH prides itself on the way we carefully plan our big winning moments. The reason our lucky winners look so surprised is because THEY REALLY ARE! Be on the lookout for any fake winning messages on Facebook and be sure you report it to us right away. We make it easy with our online PCH Scam Incident Report and strongly encourage you to fill one out if you think you are being scammed. It’s fast and super-easy!
Winners Are NOT Contacted By Phone
If you win a PCH prize over $10K, the Prize Patrol will show up at your house – they will NOT call you! (Smaller prizes are delivered via UPS.) If you receive a phone call from someone claiming they are from Publishers Clearing House, simply HANG UP. If you win a prize, you won’t find out from a phone call.
Look For The Checkmark
Our official PCH social media pages are all verified. You can easily tell if a page is verified if it has a checkmark And this is important, the checkmark should be located right next to our name, Publishers Clearing House. We’ve seen scammers add a checkmark to our logo to try to impersonate PCH, but only our official accounts have the checkmark in the right place. Here are what each of our pages look like:
If something feels off, or you are asked to provide money or personal information, DON’T. The Prize Patrol will come to your house if you’re a winner, so you never have to worry you’ll miss out!
I know I received a call telling me I had won the truck or 1 million dollars. However, they wanted 200.00 for delivery charge. They said they could a FedEx deliver it within 20/minutes! Only if I would give them a check/ No Cash
I knew I would see the Prize Patrol’. Flowers Champagne. And the Big Check! Best Part would be my friends from PCH delivering that huge surprise !
Hello Marsha, Please report all scam contacts to PCH via this link: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. I also encourage you to check out these Safety Tips for some great info on what to watch for: https://bit.ly/FraudProtection2. Thank you!!
I got a phone call yesterday saying I won 8 and a half million dollars and a 2022 Mercedes Benz and 5 thousand a week and they said I would have to buy a card and put 500 dollars on it and send it in to get my money.
Hi Shelia, please be careful. That’s a scammer, NOT the real PCH. The real PCH doesn’t notify our major prize winners via phone, standard mail, email, or social media, and we never ask for money to claim a prize. Please report any details you have about that scam contact to us at this link: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. I also encourage you to check out these Safety Tips for some great info on what to watch for: https://bit.ly/FraudProtection2. Stay safe everyone!
I got an email from SHARON GREEN who claims to be from PCH. However, her email was a gmail account. In the trash, it went.
Hello Dan! Please report all contacts from scammers to PCH via this link: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. PCH does partner with the Federal Trade Commission and we send all scam reports to them so please make sure you let us know anytime a scammer contacts you. Remember, the real PCH never notifies major prize winners via phone, standard mail, email, or social media, and we never ask winners to pay to claim their prize. You can see more Safety Tips here: https://bit.ly/FraudProtection2. Please be careful everyone; don’t become a scammer’s victim.
4 different ones have approached me, with the exact story…! I know the rules and how PCH operates, so I make sure that they understand that I knew who they were…! And report them right away…
Hello Vladimyr, Thank you very much for reporting the scammers that have contacted you. Stopping them is a team effort and we are happy that you are doing your part. While it may be tempting, we don’t encourage you to interact with them any more than is minimally necessary. Simply tell them that you know they’re not the real PCH and hang up or disconnect your mode of contact with them. To stop scammers from contacting you on Facebook, check out this PCH Blog article: http://bit.ly/StopFBScammers. As a reminder, you can report scammers to PCH at this link: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. Be careful and stay safe everyone!!
Thanks again for the information about scammers PCH. I just got a phone call saying I Won 15 million and a Mercedes Benz From PCH and Readers Digest… I’m still trying to win though.
Hi Eileen, I’m sorry to hear the scammers are bothering you. Please report all contacts from scammers to PCH via this link: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. PCH does partner with the Federal Trade Commission and we send all scam reports to them so please make sure you let us know anytime a scammer contacts you. Remember, the real PCH never notifies major prize winners via phone, standard mail, email, or social media, and we never ask winners to pay to claim their prize. You can see more Safety Tips here: https://bit.ly/FraudProtection2. Please be careful everyone; don’t become a scammer’s victim.
Thanks for letting us know about this important information and may god bless you all. Have a great and wonderful day.
Thank you so much for the information. I know they tried several times. I noticed the blue check mark awhile ago. You guys are awesome! Keep Smiling and Keep Laughing ☺️🤣
Thanks for the information regarding your contact & delivery method I have had hundreds of scam callers before.
Hi Frank, we’re sorry to hear the scammers are bothering you. Please report all contacts from scammers to PCH via this link: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. PCH does partner with the Federal Trade Commission and we send all scam reports to them so please make sure you let us know anytime a scammer contacts you. Remember, the real PCH never notifies major prize winners via phone, standard mail, email, or social media, and we never ask winners to pay to claim their prize. You can see more Safety Tips here: https://bit.ly/FraudProtection2. Stay safe!
I had someone named Peter Love telling me I won a PCH sweepstakes. I’m sure this has to be a scam.
Hello Karen! The real PCH doesn’t notify our major prize winners via phone, standard mail, email, or social media, and we never ask for money to claim a prize. Please report any details you have about that scam contact to us at this link: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. I also encourage you to check out these Safety Tips for some great info on what to watch for: https://bit.ly/FraudProtection2. Stay safe everyone!!
Scammers say I won 2,500,000.00 and say they work for PCH.
I go by what you say, “we just come to the door unannounced.”
Some days I like to give up, for the number of years I played and not won even a dollar.
Then I pull my self up, think positive, and play another day.
Hello Cary! We’re so happy that you knew that wasn’t the real PCH who contacted you. We will never ask for money to claim a prize. We also don’t notify winners via phone, standard mail, email, or social media. Please report all scam contacts to PCH via this link: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. We encourage everyone to review the following Safety Tips to better protect themselves from being scammed: https://bit.ly/FraudProtection2
Hi there,
I never win any PCH games. Scammers attack my account or they closed my account ..pls check for me …and let me know the problem ..they already asked for money for IRS fees….
I hope you understand..
Hello Nehala, The real PCH doesn’t notify our major prize winners via phone, standard mail, email, or social media, and we never ask for money to claim a prize. Please report any details you have about that scam contact to us at this link: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. I also encourage you to check out these Safety Tips for some great info on what to watch for: https://bit.ly/FraudProtection2. Stay safe everyone!!